Snapshots of some of the latest peer-reviewed
research within psychology and related fields.

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of these three psychosocial conditions.
The figure rose to 35 percent for single
women who had never married and to
67 percent for those who separated or
divorced less than 12 months before
their child was born. (American Journal
of Public Health, February)

n Feeling depressed may aggravate
chest pain in older women who’ve had
heart problems, according to research
by scientists at Queensland University
of Technology. The researchers surveyed
more than 10,000 women ages 70 to 75.
Their analysis showed that a diagnosis
of depression within the previous three
years was a significant risk factor for
chest pain in women with heart disease
and a past history of heart interventions.
(British Journal of Health Psychology,
online Dec. 7)

People who had backpacked were more creative than those who hadn’t, a study finds.

n Taking a break from technologyand immersing yourself in naturemay improve creativity, accordingto research by psychologists at theUniversity of Utah and the Universityof Kansas. In the study, 30 men and 26women participated in four- to six-day wilderness hiking trips withoutany electronic devices. Of the 56subjects, 24 took a 10-item creativitytest the morning before they begantheir trip, and 32 took the test on themorning of the trip’s fourth day. Theresearchers found that people who hadbeen backpacking four days answeredan average of 6.08 of the 10 questionscorrectly, compared with an averagescore of 4.14 for people who had not yetbegun the trip. (PLoS One, Dec. 12)

n Married women appear to suffer
less partner abuse, substance abuse
and postpartum depression during
their childbearing years than women
who are cohabitating or do not have
a partner, according to a study led by
researchers at St. Michael’s Hospital in
Toronto. Data from a survey of 6,421
Canadian women aged 15 years or
older show that about 10 percent of
married women experienced partner
or substance abuse or postpartum
depression and 20 percent of women
who were cohabitating had at least one

n People with mental illness are
more likely to be victims of domestic
violence, finds a meta-analysis
conducted at King’s College London.
Researchers examined results from 41
studies and found that women with
depression were two-and-a-half times
more likely to be physically abused by a
partner than was the general population.
Women with anxiety disorders were
more than three-and-a-half times more
likely to be abused, and those with post-traumatic stress disorder were seven
times more likely. Women with other
conditions such as obsessive compulsive
disorder, eating disorders, schizophrenia
and bipolar disorder were also at higher
risk, as were men with all types of
mental disorders. (PLoS One, online
Dec. 26)